This past weekend I had the pleasure of seeing Katy Perry at Wembley Arena! I bought the tickets as a Graduation Present for myself when I finished grad school like a billion years ago.

I LOVE Katy Perry so I agonised forever over what to wear. I wanted to make a new dress and wear a wig, but I didn’t have time or money to get a new wig or buy fabric. So I decided to wear two pieces that I made while I was getting my textiles degree: the Katy Perry apron you may remember from this post and my strawberry dress! We only had like 5 minutes to quickly snap some pictures of my outfit before jumping on the train to Wembley, so they came out a little derp-y, but I hope they can inspire nonetheless:

The waitress-style dress I wore underneath the apron. I made it a year or so ago, but it fits so much better now that I’ve lost weight! I designed the fabric too and had it custom printed for this dress (you may recognise where I got the idea for it if you play Poupée Girl 😉 ). The strawberry was a picture I painted, and I designed the print in Photoshop.

And the aforementioned apron I wore over it… The angle of these pictures make me look like a giant! The shoes I wore are the Iron Fist Zombie Heels. I did my make up to match the dress (the pinks are Sugarpill “Birthday Girl” and “Magcentric”, the green is Urban Decay’s “Chronic” – all vegan of course!!).
One thing I totally didn’t realise was that I bought tickets on the FLOOR!! My tickets only cost £30, so I just assumed that the whole venue was general admission because I didn’t have to choose seats when I bought them. The arena was huge and I was so close to the stage in comparison to people in the seats! I showed up an hour and a half late because I was trying to miss the opening acts, but despite my efforts I still showed up in the middle of Yelle’s set. It was okay though, because she was amazing!!

This is the first time I’ve ever gone to a major pop star’s concert so I had no idea what to expect. I’ve never seen Britney or Madonna or any of those superstars live and I’ve been to very few “major label” concerts.

The following things REALLY surprised me:
• The concert had a story line!
• There was this big fancy candy land inspired set! I was expecting just a stage!
• There were LASERS. LASERS.
• Back up dancers! Holy shit! They were doing back flips and being suspended from the ceiling! Katy’s not really known for dancing, so I just had no idea this was going to happen, but OMG!
• Pyrotechnics… REAL fireworks!

I won’t spoil the storyline for anyone who hasn’t seen the concert, but basically pre-recorded clips of a love story about Katy traveling to Candyfornia with her cat Kitty Purry played on the three big screens in the above picture. Sometimes in between songs, we’d see the next part of the storyline. Katy opened with “Teenage Dream” and came out with this AMAZING outfit that was super sparkly!
She followed that up with “Hummingbird Heartbeat”, which I was lucky enough to get a whole video of!

She followed that up with “Waking Up In Vegas”, where she threw lots of coins in the audience and had her dancers suspended from the cieling! Then she performed “Ur so Gay”. After that she took off her dress to reveal a purple and green body suit and performed “Peacock” while her dancers surrounded her with feathers! It was amazing! I managed to get this shot of her:
After “Peacock” she put on a long, beautiful sparkly dress and sang an alternative version of her first hit, “I Kissed A Girl”. Some scenes of the story played on the big screens, after which she came back on in another new outfit and performed “Circle the Drain”.

Then E.T. started and there were mother f*$@ing lasers projecting into the audience!!! They looked SO cool! I tried to get a picture but failed, so here’s a video I recorded of them… you can see Katy getting carried across stage by her dancers too:

She followed that up with “Who Am I Living For”, “Pearl”, and “Not Like the Movies”. During “Pearl”, she wore this glittery silver cape and two of her dancers were suspended from the ceiling. Then the dancers joined arms (or legs? I can’t remember) and the lifted her up off the stage! And during “Not Like The Movies”, Katy was lifted up in a swing while a big curtain was suspended behind her… Similar to her performance at the Grammies, which is where this GIF is from:
There was a little break in the middle of the show where Katy played 4 acoustic covers: “Only Girl (In the World)”, “Big Pimpin'”, “Born This Way”, and “Whip My Hair”. After the covers, she played “Thinking of You” on a rhinestone covered guitar and then there was a short pause while the next clip of the storyline played on the big screens. Katy came back onstage and did this incredible performance of “Hot N Cold” where she changed into a TON of different outfits. After that she sang “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”. Then she went into a cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”… and one of the dancers DRESSED IN A FUZZY MASCOT COSTUME OF KITTY PURRY came ON STAGE rolling around, holy shit it was HILARIOUS and amazing, I had to take a picture of it:I also took a video of it because it was THAT funny.

She closed with “Firework” which was just incredible! There were REAL Fireworks going off in the arena, and shit was CRAYZAY!
For the encore she played, of course, “California Gurls”. While it’s not my favourite song from Teenage Dream, the performance was amazing! She let loose a bunch of GIANT beach balls into the audience and everyone was bouncing them around, and two HUGE explosions of glittery confetti went off at the end!

All in all, it was one of the most incredible, inspiring, and extravagant concert experiences of my life! Waking up super early to buy tickets the day they went on sale was 100% worth it! I will definitely see her when she comes to London again!

Want to see high res pics? Check out the gallery below or comment on the gallery on facebook!

Vegan Beauty Review!

Second of all, my Cruelty Free Make Up Guide and my previous post about hair care have been getting linked and liked all over the place, which I’m so grateful for! As a result, I’ve gotten a lot of emails and comments about brands not on the list. I’d like to clear up a few things on two big contenders in the beauty world:

Are Anna Sui Cosmetics cruelty free?

NO! No. Anna Sui Cosmetics is owned by mega corporation Procter and Gamble, one of the biggest and most unapologetic offenders in terms of animal cruelty. Even if the actual cosmetics themselves aren’t tested on animals (which they most likely are), when you buy Anna Sui make up, the profits still go to P&G. They are not cruelty free.

Their products are massively over rated anyways, if I’m being honest. The best thing about Anna Sui is their packaging, seriously.

Is Herbal Essences vegan?

People ask about Herbal Essences a lot too. For reasons I don’t understand, Herbal Essences has a reputation for being vegan (is it the packaging or something?), but the company that makes Herbal Essences, Clairol, are also owned by P&G! So, no they are not cruelty free at all.

Lastly, you may have noticed that I added a lifestream to my site, to record my day to day activities! I also share links that I love there every day. These updates don’t show up on the main page or the main RSS Feed since they aren’t relevant to everyone’s interests obviously, but they can be found here. I set up a separate RSS for those entries here should you want to follow along!

Thank you to all my readers, I love you all! Looking forward to starting spring with a NEW series of articles this week!

This is Part 2 of my curly hair guide, and it contains advice on what products to use and which brands are cruelty free. I hope it can be helpful to people with straight hair who are just looking for quality cruelty free hair care as well, as most of the brands listed have products for every hair type.

When Using with the Tightly Curly Method

The conditioners on this list can be used for curly OR straight hair, but I made sure to give special advice to those of us with curly hair like me. As I stated in Part One of the curly hair guide, Teri suggests using a light, super moisturising conditioner in the shower, and a heavy one for combing and leaving in your hair after you get out of the shower. However, you can also use a heavy conditioner for both if you don’t want to spend the extra time/money/shelf space buying two types of conditioner.

This may be a no-brainer to some but, basically: lightweight conditioners tend to have a watery consistency, and slip through your fingers easily, where as heavy conditioners look / feel like thick lotion and are more viscous. I tend to use something cheap for combing in, since you have to use a ton of product when doing it, and a lot of it gets combed out anyways. I’ve specified which brands make a heavy conditioner with an asterisk (*).

8 Cruelty Free & Vegan Hair Care Brands

I painstakingly tested all these brands myself to see which the best ones are, none of the brands sent me free samples and none of them are paying me to be featured here (the Trader Joe’s amazon link isn’t even an affiliate link). So you can trust my opinion on all of them. They are in order of best to… not best, but still pretty good. 😛

If you live in the USA, you’re in luck, because Trader Joe’s sells conditioner (and shampoo) that’s 100% cruelty free, as well as 100% amazing. Their products are the best thing I’ve tried so far. I honestly feel weird even comparing the other brands I’ve tried to this, since it’s like comparing a bunch of shiny rocks to a diamond or something. Even if you aren’t a vegan, this stuff is creamy, incredible, and will make your hair fabulous. For curly hair, it works great as a rinsing OR brush in conditioner. I use it for both.

But of course, there is a downside to TJ’s and it’s that you can only get their stuff in the USA. That’s actually the whole reason I decided to write this guide, because I’ve been looking for a (vegan) replacement to this stuff since I moved to the UK. I lament the lack of Trader Joe’s here, and whenever I’m visiting my parents in the US, I make a point to go to TJ’s and stock up on this stuff. Even after completing this guide, I have yet to find anything in the UK that truly compares to the Trader Joe’s conditioner in terms of quality for the price. OH did I even mention that yet? The absolute best part is that its less than $10 for a 16 oz bottle!!! If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s near you, that’s ok too, because you can easily buy it on Amazon.

None of DevaCurl products are tested on animals, and all the ones I’ve tried (Creamy One Condition and Arc AnGEL) have been vegan. “Contains no animal derived ingredients” is the label on their vegan products. DevaCurl conditioner is great heavyweight product for rinsing OR combing into your curls. It’s probably the closest I’ve been able to find to the Trader Joe’s conditioner in terms of quality, but unlike TJ’s, DevaCurl stuff is expensive. Pretty much everything they sell is at least $20 for a 12 fl oz. size bottle. That’s twice as much as the bottle of Trader Joe’s conditioner, but for less product (!). When you have hair as long as I do, that bottle doesn’t last very long at all, even if you only choose to use it as a rinsing conditioner. If you have the extra cash AND can’t get the Trader Joe’s conditioner, DevaCurl may be the best choice for you.

Samy’s products are pretty cheap at around £5 a bottle for their regular line, don’t contain parabens, and are 100% vegan. The variety I got (above) is from their “Pure” line and did a pretty good job of moisturising and weighing down my hair. I tried it for both rinsing and combing in, and it’s versatile enough to be used for both, which is great. Not quite as impressive as TJ’s or Deva in terms of making my hair silky and shiny, but considering the price, they’re an incredibly good deal.

If you have curly hair I recommend NOT getting the “Big Fat Hair” line for combing in, as that line is too lightweight
to be used that way. Get the one that comes in a bottle like this.

Lush, a well known cruelty free company, sells two fabulous vegan conditioners: Veganese, a regular liquid conditioner that comes in a bottle, and Jungle, which is a solid conditioner that looks like a bar of soap. All of their products are cruelty free, many are vegan, and the vegan products are clearly labeled. They have thousands of shops all over the world, too, so no matter where you live, you’ll be able to find them.

Jungle, the solid conditioner bar pictured above, is a great moisturiser and smells wonderful but I’m not that keen on it, because applying it to your hair is kind of difficult and takes time. There’s supposedly a technique for softening the bar in a pot of hot water for an entire day, making it easier to apply, but I fully admit I can’t be bothered to do that. Maybe in the future. For obvious reasons, you can not use Jungle as a combing in conditioner when doing the tightly curly method.

Veganese is weird, in the sense that it’s neither a lightweight, nor heavy weight conditioner. I guess you could say it’s medium weight. It does an amazing job of moisturising, but it didn’t work that well as a combing-in conditioner for my curly hair – it’s not really heavy enough. If you have thinner curly hair, though, you might be able to use it for combing in. It’s a little pricey at £12.50 for the biggest bottle, but it’s definitely worth the money in terms of quality.

All of Faith in Nature’s products are cruelty free, vegan, all natural and don’t contain parabens or any other nasty chemicals. At only £5 a bottle, their prices are pretty good. Their products also smell amazing. I tried the Hemp & Meadowfoam Conditioner. It made my hair very silky, but the product is WAY too light weight for use as a combing conditioner. They probably have the most light weight products out of any other brands I tried. Nonetheless, their moisturising power did impress me and are definitely worth a try.

From Left to right: The "Basic" Apple conditioner and a bottle from the specialty line

All of the Cooperative’s shampoos and conditioners are cruelty free & vegan, and are labeled as such. They sell two different types of conditioner: one bargain apple scented conditioner “for normal hair” that comes in a big bottle and costs like 93p, and then a range of slightly fancier looking smaller bottles that come in a few different scents, for a few different hair types and cost a little more. I’ve tried the basic apple scented one, and the Coconut and Honey scented for Dry/Damaged hair from their higher end range, as pictured above. Despite the name, the Coconut & Honey one doesn’t actually contain honey as far as I can tell from reading the ingredients. It doesn’t actually contain coconut either, so… yeah. I’m guessing that’s just how it’s scented.

I found that these conditioners were really good considering the price, definitely better than the other drug store brands I’ve tried. The smell of them is kinda intense, and they didn’t moisturise as much as I’d like, but they were good for weighing down my curls. The apple one is especially heavy, it’s great as a brushing in conditioner.

Superdrug doesn’t test on animals, and sells a specialty line of shampoos and conditioners called “Superdrug Naturals”, some of which are vegan. Their bottles of their vegan products are labeled “suitable for vegans”. As far as I can tell, the only one of their “Naturals” conditioners that isn’t is the Coconut one. Their conditioner is not exactly amazing, but it also costs less than £2 a bottle, so considering the price it’s a pretty good deal. They are also nice and heavy, so they’re appropriate for use as a leaving in conditioner in curly hair. They don’t moisturise that well, in my experience, so I wouldn’t bother using it on your scalp.

Other Brands

The following brands do not test on animals, and some or all of their products are vegan. I would’ve included them in this guide, but I didn’t because I either couldn’t find them at the shops, or I couldn’t tell which of their products were vegan because they weren’t labeled. If there are any company CEOs out there reading this: LABEL your shit! Hopefully I’ll get the chance to check them out in the future.

I hope you’ve found this guide helpful! But remember…

everyone’s hair is different! Try out a few different products and then decide which one you like best. The point is, you CAN have great curly hair, and no matter your hair type, it’s easy to have amazing shiny hair the cruelty free way! In the world of consumerism, your dollars are as powerful as votes. Don’t give your hard earned cash to companies that torture animals in the development of their products!

If you know any other great cruelty free brands I’ve overlooked, leave a comment with what you use, or send me an @ reply on Twitter letting me know!

Like perhaps a lot people, I grew up thinking my curly hair was some kind of curse placed on me for the sole purpose of making my life miserable (or something similar). It used to be a source of major drama, trauma, and general depression. Whenever I talked about wanting silky smooth hair, I was always told that such things were pretty much impossible. I was told that I was stuck with frizzy hair forever, too bad, there’s nothing you can do about it, DealWithIt.gif. P.S., god hates you. Etc. So, for a lot of my life I fought against my curly hair by straightening it with irons, chemicals, and various other things that only contributed to destroying my hair further. Eventually I was inspired to stop fighting and start trying to figure this curly hair thing out. And the results have been SOOO magical. NOW I HAVE TAYLOR SWIFT CURLS, Y’ALL.

First, a little back story…

I grew up with family members (both immediate and extended) who had no idea what to do with curly hair. To give you at glimpse at our total ignorance: from the time I was born until literally I was in high school, we always brushed my hair when it was dry. I thought that was normal. This is a massive curly hair no-no of epic proportions – curly hair should always and only be combed when wet! How freaking stupid, right? Because of this, it took hours to do my hair and it suffered severe damage. I wore my hair in braids 24/7 because wearing it loose was just NOT an option.

Eventually, I started getting my hair straightened at a salon regularly with a relaxer. This probably sounds hard to believe, but relaxers have never worked on my hair. For those unfamiliar with the process, relaxing your hair involves slathering it with caustic chemicals that destroy the bonds in your hair so it stays straight. After this, that hair is straight forever.

Yeah… that never happened to me. Usually in the past when I had my hair relaxed, it would stay straight for maybe a month provided I washed it as little as possible. But eventually it would just be curly again, as if I had never relaxed it at all! And I’d have to go back to the salon. If it was humid or got wet, it would just frizz up instantly. One time I had it straightened in the morning, and by the time I went to bed that night, it was frizzy and looked like straw!

I’m not sure if it was because my stylists weren’t using strong enough relaxer, or if the universe was trying to tell me to stop that shit, but my hair just refused to stay straight. By the time I moved to Bath in 2009, I just didn’t feel like doing it anymore. I had become fed up with going to the salon all the time, I didn’t have money to keep getting my hair done, and my postgraduate coursework left me with no time to try to make my hair look straight. Most of the time I wore my hair in a bun or pony tail. Wearing it down would result in it getting really puffy.

This is how my hair used to look on a GOOD day. Most of the time, though, it was far worse. I knew trying to relax it would be just a waste of time, so I did lots of work looking online for ways to make curly hair look good. To be honest, most of the sites I came across were pretty much worthless. Seriously.

Eventually, somehow, I came across a site called TightlyCurly.com. TightlyCurly is the website for the book Curly Like Me: How to Grow Your Hair Healthy, Long, and Strong. If you don’t have money for the book, though, Teri talks about how to do her method on her site and in YouTube videos! I do a slightly modified version of her technique, so I’ll teach how to do it here. Since I started doing my hair this way, it now looks like THIS on a good day:
People come up to me and ask me where I got it done like this. AS IF you could get this done at a salon – most hair stylists don’t know jack about curly hair! I just tell them I did it myself, and you can too!

How to tame curly hair with the Tightly Curly Method

In a nutshell, the Tightly Curly method involves putting conditioner in your hair after you finish showering, and not rinsing it out. You cleanse your hair and condition it in the shower, comb it while in the shower, and then after you get out the shower and while it’s still wet, you put more conditioner in it and brush it with a Denman brush. Then after you finish brushing, you smooth your hair between your fingers. This sounds like a lot of work, but trust me it totally isn’t.

Notes: You can get a Denman brush on amazon as linked above, but they also have them at Sainsbury’s and at places like Sally’s Beauty supply. The reason these types of brushes work the best is because the plastic bristles do not have little balls on the end. Those brushes with balls on the ends of the bristles suck for curly hair and will tangle your hair. I recommend getting a Denman. They have a few different sizes (7 row, 9 row, etc) – it doesn’t really matter which one you get. I have a lot of hair, and I use a 9 row one, just for reference.

How to do it

1. Get in the shower. Shampoo and condition your hair as you normally would. Use your wide tooth comb to comb out all the tangles in your hair from root to tip.

2. Just before you get out the shower, rinse your hair completely and make sure it gets soaking wet.

3. When you get out the shower, grab your conditioner and squeeze a LOT into the palm of your hand. Massage the conditioner into your hair, get all over your head and don’t forget the back! How much conditioner you use depends on your hair length. I have really long and thick hair, so I use an entire palm full (above) for EACH HALF of my head!! Obviously, if you have short hair, you may need to use less. Start off with a lot, though – you’re going to brush some of it out in the next step anyways.

4. Grab your Denman brush and with the conditioner still in your hair, brush your hair from root to tip. Your hair will look like pretty ribbons when you do this! The conditioner in your hair will probably start to foam, so it’s best to do this step over a sink so you can pause to rinse out your brush if you need to, or let the foam drip into the sink. Do NOT rinse the conditioner out of your hair.

Here’s a tip: to prevent your hair from looking flattened at the top of your head (like this), while you’re brushing it, lean forward and flip your hair over your head like this:

And brush it upside down. This will give the top of your head some volume!

5. DO NOT RINSE THE CONDITIONER OUT OF YOUR HAIR. Once you’ve brushed your hair all over and all the tangles are out of it, run your fingers over and through your hair to define your curls. I do this by simply running my hands through my hair and flattening big sections of it between my hands. Teri recommends separating your hair into strands and doing each section individually – I find this too time consuming, and not necessary for my hair type. However, my hair isn’t as curly as hers. She has a great video on doing this here.

6. Let your hair air dry if possible. Blow drying is TERRIBLE for your hair, but if you must do it, do it on the cool setting. Do not let anything rub up against or touch your hair while it’s drying. I usually cook dinner or work on blog posts while my hair is drying. If you decide to chill out on the couch while your hair is drying, don’t let the back of the couch rub against your hair, or it’ll get messed up. This may take a couple hours, but it’s worth it.

7. Important step: Protect your hair at night.
This is something my fellow curlies always forget to do and it’s basically the most important thing to maintaining good curls. You need to protect your hair when you sleep! And no, I DON’T mean sleeping on a satin pillowcase. Satin pillowcases help to a certain degree but all the satin in the entire universe won’t help you if your curls are rolling around all night.

The best way to protect your hair is to put it in a braid (plait) or two braids before you to do bed. If your hair isn’t long enough for that, you can pull it back into a bun instead or try french braiding it.

Why it works

Before you can tame your curls, padawan, it’s worth it to learn WHY your hair is frizzy and out of control in the first place. Because once you know, you realise that a lot of the stuff surrounding hair products is bullshit. If your hair is frizzy, it’s because it’s dry and needs moisture. Your hair is reaching out into the air in an attempt to grab moisture out of the air. That’s it. Most special products geared towards curly hair, or towards black women, etc – are mostly irrelevant. You just need to give your hair moisture, that is all. And that’s why leaving conditioner in your hair works – it does exactly that.

On Shampoo

I don’t Shampoo at all. Shampooing is bad for your hair because it robs your hair of natural oils, and that includes people with straight hair too. No matter how many “special” products I’ve tried, I’ve never been able to find any shampoo that did anything other than dry out my hair. Even those ridiculously expensive professional organic salon grade shampoos hand crafted by humanoid unicorns on the astral plane, containing genuine diamond dust and the tears of Jesus Christ himself that cost a kajillion dollars a bottle do nothing but damage for my hair. So I just stopped using shampoo altogether, and its been great for me ever since. I clean my hair with cleansing conditioner or, if need be, I’ll do an apple cider vinegar rinse. If you really must shampoo, do it only once a week or once every other week.

More curly hair tips!

• DO NOT BRUSH OR COMB YOUR HAIR WHEN IT’S DRY.
• You can give your hair a moisture boost by doing a hot oil treatment every once in a while. I probably do one every month.
• Unlike with shampoo, you absolutely must condition your hair every single time you shower (i.e. every day). I’ll be getting into the best cruelty free conditioners in part two.
• Hard water and/or chlorine in your water can add to hair dryness. You can combat this by adding a filter like this one to your shower!

In part 2 I’ll show you the best cruelty free conditioners and those that work best for using the tightly curly technique! I have tried pretty much all of them, so you don’t have to!

I’m so grateful to have Jonna as my friend. I’m so grateful that we’ve managed to stay friends for over ten years! I’m so grateful we were able to stay such good friends despite her moving to Florida for a while and me moving here! I’m so grateful she decided to move back to Massachusetts! I’m so grateful I can talk to her about anything and she feels the same way! I’m so grateful she makes me laugh so much! I’m so grateful she loves to party as much as I do! I’m so grateful she’s introduced me to so many cool things and cool people! I’m so grateful that seeing her happy makes me happy! I’m so grateful that it’s easy to keep in touch with her in this day and age! I’m so grateful to have met her! I feel so lucky to have her as a friend! I’m so grateful to have the best friend anyone could ever have!

I’m so grateful that I can make this post now because I installed a new Category Visibility plugin! Especially since this is a special Jonna post! I was going crazy all day not being able to make this post. I’m so grateful Jessica offered to help me fix my problems with the plugin! I’m so moved by her willingness to help me! I’m so grateful for the new forum that I’m totally going to hang out in! I’m so grateful I’ve already done my strength training for today! I’m so grateful it was RIDICULOUSLY easy! I’m definitely going to have to increase my weights next time!

I love Jonna. I love that Jonna got a new job! I love that she’s going to get her own place with Gary soon! I love the success that’s been coming her way recently! I love Jonna’s honesty and understanding! I love her cute outfits! I love when she helps me cut vegetables while we cook together! I love that I’ll see her when I go visit my parents in May! I love that she showed me this amazing song. I love that I’ll get to be in her wedding and make her dress! I love all the inside jokes we have that have lasted forever and will continue to be funny until the end of time! I love having a best friend!

Wouldn’t it be nice if Jonna came to visit? Wouldn’t it be nice to go to Edinburgh with her and eat vegan haggis? Wouldn’t it be nice to go to a Lady Gaga concert together? Wouldn’t it be nice if Lady Gaga tickets didn’t cost so much? Wouldn’t it be nice to party with Jonna and get wasted and drink fancy drinks? Wouldn’t it be nice to go to her Birthday party? Wouldn’t it be nice if what I sent her got to her tomorrow or the next day? Wouldn’t it be nice to be more like Jonna? Wouldn’t it be nice if more people recognised how awesome she is? Wouldn’t it be nice if I wasn’t wearing a random red headband that clashes with my hoodie in the above picture? (Seriously WTF).

Today I intend to feel joyful and inspired as I think about all the fun I’ve had and will continue to have with my best friend.

Ten Things I Love About Jonna

1. She has awesome hair that changes colour and looks good curly or straight
2. She is beautiful the way she looks now and still makes effort to stay in shape
3. She always makes me laugh
4. She is always there for me to talk to and I’m there for her
5. She is a member of my family (basically)
6. She has stayed my friend through difficult times
7. She never gives up
8. She brings out the best in everyone around her
9. She lights up a room with her personality
10. She gets along with everyone and I never have to worry about introducing her to anyone because I know they will love her

Daily Affirmation

I love living!!

Happy Birthday Jonna!

The world is abuzz talking about the new video by Britney Spears, “Hold It Against Me”, from her upcoming seventh studio album Femme Fatale. I have to admit – I had low expectations. I love her music, but I haven’t genuinely enjoyed a Britney video since 2004’s “Toxic” (and I don’t even care for that song that much, but the video is excellent). There was a lot of hype surrounding the video release as well, which made me even more concerned, especially after the recent disappointment of Lady GaGa’s new single (which was hyped to hell and back). All those feelings were put to rest when I watched the video premiere this morning.

The video opens with a comet hitting Earth. Some people say they think the comet is the “martian” Britney from her Oops! I Did It Again video, or that it represents Britney’s career taking off. I like to think it represents Britney’s higher self descending to the Earth. The titles roll, and Britney is seen dancing with back up in this absolutely killer outfit (above). Normally I’m not that into her outfits, but I am 100% in love with this. The shorts, the belt, that top, and the jacket she puts on after are all stunning. I want them all! I have to make a replica of this.

The cameras, editing shots, and product placement lead me to believe that this represents Britney in work mode. Over the course of the video, she starts to break down and go crazy little by little. These scenes are interspersed with ones of her being lifted up in a giant white dress, underneath from which apparently her faceless back up dancers are born. Surrounding her is a tower of TV screens featuring all of her old videos, like “Sometimes”, “…Baby One More Time” and so on.

As the bridge/breakdown begins, Britney shoots coloured liquid out of her fingertips and defaces the screens while collapsing slowly into the fabric of her giant dress. She’s destroying the images of her old self.

Then… the fight scene begins!

I was riveted the whole time here. The whole breakdown is just absolutely stunning. A lot of fans are complaining that they don’t understand this part. I think it’s fairly straightforward – new Britney (the Femme Fatale, or Britney’s higher self, or the REAL Britney) is fighting with the old Britney that the public seems to be clinging to. It could also represent an internal struggle – the version of Britney that the public sees fighting with how she is in her every day life.

The video finishes off with Britney and her back up dancers killing it on a stage while pyrotechnics and confetti burst around them.

My Opinion

I can’t see how anyone could say this video is less than stellar. I think this is the best thing she’s released since “Toxic”, and I’m not even into music videos that much. Despite my doubts, I was pleasantly surprised by everything – the cinematography, dancing, and those OUTFITS! I feel like I’ve watched Britney evolve into the sophisticated artist and “femme fatale” that she’s become now.

Speaking of the dancing, I know a lot of fans are disappointed because they’re waiting for Britney to return to how she danced when she was 17. First of all, this is my opinion, but I don’t think this song lends itself to that kind of Slave 4 U style dancing. Like Toxic (which didn’t have dancing in the video at all), it’s just not that kind of song. Second of all – I thought the dancing was great here! It’s no Satisfaction/Oops! I did it again performance, but its so much better than any of the videos from Circus or Blackout. I’m pleasantly surprised.

My only small criticism is the sheer amount of product placement featured in the online version (the version aired on TV had it removed). I actually don’t mind product placement, to be honest. That being said, it’s really heavy handed and in your face here, even more so than in Lady Gaga’s Telephone video – also directed by Jonas Åkerlund. I’m not sure if this is a Jonas Åkerlund thing, or if they simply needed the product placement to fund the video, which admittedly looks pretty high budget. The quick cuts were also pretty difficult to watch the first time I saw it (which is definitely an Åkerlund thing) but upon seeing it a second time, they didn’t bother me as much.

A present to bring you aural pleasure…

This is my acoustic guitar cover of Britney’s song “Everytime”! I know you will love listening to it as much as I loved making it. 😀 I wore my Batman dress and recorded it especially for this day!

The only thing I have to say now, is that I NEED a make up tutorial for the Hold It Against Me video!

Especially the scenes of her in the white dress! I’m hoping a make up guru out there will make one! Anybody?

about adorpheus

I'm a musician and a cosplayer. I watch a lot of Star Trek and listen to a lot of Elliott Smith and eat a lot of chocolate. I mostly post about veganism, because being a vegan is pretty great. Sometimes I post about the other things I do. I was featured on MTV's True Life. Read more...